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Spatchcocked Quail with Pearl Barley

Quail has great flavour, and is low in fat. Here it’s flattened and cooked on skewers over the barbecue, served with pearl barley.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Quail and barley share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 5 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-hexanol, which smells resin, flower. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Using kitchen shears, cut out the backbone of each quail and press it flat. Season all over with salt and black pepper.

  2. Mix half the rapeseed oil with the chopped rosemary and rub it over the quail. Set aside while you cook the barley.

  3. Trim the leek, slice it thinly and rinse well. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat and soften the leek for about 5 minutes.

  4. Stir in the pearl barley for 1 minute, then pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer over low heat for 30 to 35 minutes until tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Season to taste.

  5. Heat the remaining rapeseed oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the quail skin side down for about 3 minutes, then turn and brown the other side for 1 minute.

  6. Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast for 15 to 20 minutes, until the thickest part of the quail reaches 165°F (74°C).

  7. Rest the quail for 5 minutes. Fluff the barley and spoon it onto plates, top with the quail, and serve with the dressed salad leaves.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Quail + barleytop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  2. Leek + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Rosemary + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Quail + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  5. Leek + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the rosemary

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, butter, leek, barley, chicken, pepper):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Celerybetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Rosemarythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, butter, leek, barley, chicken, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).